Leave A Comment

Scott Snyder Is Having a Blast Jumping the Shark in Dark Nights: Metal

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Dark Nights: Metal #4 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, on sale now.

This week represents our first step past the halfway point on Dark Nights: Metal, as chapter #4 of the six-issue event hits shelves. And, as creators Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo have promised since the beginning, things are only getting more and more explosively crazy as we go. From ’90s punk-inspired cosmic parasites to the genuinely heartfelt evolution of iconic superheroes, Metal is about to kick into overdrive.

CBR: Okay, so — I don’t want to beat around the bush at all. We have to talk about Starro, who gets a pretty big moment in this issue, but with a very unique take on him as a character. Where did that come from?

Scott Snyder: [Laughs] Starro is my favorite thing. I was so worried. I was originally going to put him on roller skates but then I was like, no, no, we can’t go that far — he’s already talking like some sort of ’90s punk, you know what I mean?

But, no! No, the issue was really so intense to write because it has so much of the real core emotional stuff of the whole thing, both in what Kendra is deeply wrestling with and what Bruce is facing. We wanted to have something there to kind of balance that out. So, Starro, calling people “punks.” [Laughs]

I noticed that during that Starro moment there was an editor’s note where your editor was almost asking you and Greg if the things you were referencing actually happened —

Yeah! Our editor, Rebecca Taylor actually called me and was like, “Did this ever happen?” And I was like, “Uhhh… why don’t we just pretend it did!” She insisted she’d have to put some kind of editorial note, so I was like, “Why don’t you just say, ‘Roll with it’?” But of course, she responded with, “I can’t just say ‘roll with it.'” [Laughs] So, what’s there is what we came up with, which I actually like even better.

She’s the best. Tay’s the best. She’s been like my partner-in-crime for quite a few years. Really, we should throw some credit to her because she’s been a guiding light on a lot of this stuff.

Oh, absolutely. I think the editorial notes even on the issues prior to this one and the tie-ins have been really fantastic.

I hope it comes across how much fun everyone is having on this, because we really just got to a point where we decided we had to just do it for ourselves. Once we got to Baby Darkseid — or, honestly, once we got to the Justice League Voltron, which is so early in the series, I was like, “Alright, we’re just doing it. We’re just jumping these sharks, I don’t care.” It’s just really been that — jumping over sharks. And if everybody wants to jump with me and like it, great. If they don’t, that’s cool — I’ll just keep jumping over them.